还有另一个递归解决方案(你应该能够使用字母而不是数字)使用堆栈，虽然比大多数更短:

stack = [] 
def choose(n,x):
   r(0,0,n+1,x)

def r(p, c, n,x):
   if x-c == 0:
      print stack
      return

   for i in range(p, n-(x-1)+c):
      stack.append(i)
      r(i+1,c+1,n,x)
      stack.pop()

4选3或者我想要从0到4的所有3种数字组合

choose(4,3) 

[0, 1, 2]
[0, 1, 3]
[0, 1, 4]
[0, 2, 3]
[0, 2, 4]
[0, 3, 4]
[1, 2, 3]
[1, 2, 4]
[1, 3, 4]
[2, 3, 4]

#include <stdio.h>

unsigned int next_combination(unsigned int *ar, size_t n, unsigned int k)
{
    unsigned int finished = 0;
    unsigned int changed = 0;
    unsigned int i;

    if (k > 0) {
        for (i = k - 1; !finished && !changed; i--) {
            if (ar[i] < (n - 1) - (k - 1) + i) {
                /* Increment this element */
                ar[i]++;
                if (i < k - 1) {
                    /* Turn the elements after it into a linear sequence */
                    unsigned int j;
                    for (j = i + 1; j < k; j++) {
                        ar[j] = ar[j - 1] + 1;
                    }
                }
                changed = 1;
            }
            finished = i == 0;
        }
        if (!changed) {
            /* Reset to first combination */
            for (i = 0; i < k; i++) {
                ar[i] = i;
            }
        }
    }
    return changed;
}

typedef void(*printfn)(const void *, FILE *);

void print_set(const unsigned int *ar, size_t len, const void **elements,
    const char *brackets, printfn print, FILE *fptr)
{
    unsigned int i;
    fputc(brackets[0], fptr);
    for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
        print(elements[ar[i]], fptr);
        if (i < len - 1) {
            fputs(", ", fptr);
        }
    }
    fputc(brackets[1], fptr);
}

int main(void)
{
    unsigned int numbers[] = { 0, 1, 2 };
    char *elements[] = { "a", "b", "c", "d", "e" };
    const unsigned int k = sizeof(numbers) / sizeof(unsigned int);
    const unsigned int n = sizeof(elements) / sizeof(const char*);

    do {
        print_set(numbers, k, (void*)elements, "[]", (printfn)fputs, stdout);
        putchar('\n');
    } while (next_combination(numbers, n, k));
    getchar();
    return 0;
}

Clojure版本:

(defn comb [k l]
  (if (= 1 k) (map vector l)
      (apply concat
             (map-indexed
              #(map (fn [x] (conj x %2))
                    (comb (dec k) (drop (inc %1) l)))
              l))))

《计算机编程艺术，卷4A:组合算法，第1部分》第7.2.1.3节中算法L(字典组合)的C代码:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

void visit(int* c, int t) 
{
  // for (int j = 1; j <= t; j++)
  for (int j = t; j > 0; j--)
    printf("%d ", c[j]);
  printf("\n");
}

int* initialize(int n, int t) 
{
  // c[0] not used
  int *c = (int*) malloc((t + 3) * sizeof(int));

  for (int j = 1; j <= t; j++)
    c[j] = j - 1;
  c[t+1] = n;
  c[t+2] = 0;
  return c;
}

void comb(int n, int t) 
{
  int *c = initialize(n, t);
  int j;

  for (;;) {
    visit(c, t);
    j = 1;
    while (c[j]+1 == c[j+1]) {
      c[j] = j - 1;
      ++j;
    }
    if (j > t) 
      return;
    ++c[j];
  }
  free(c);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  comb(5, 3);
  return 0;
}

这是一个简单的JS解决方案:

function getAllCombinations(n, k, f1) { indexes = Array(k); for (let i =0; i< k; i++) { indexes[i] = i; } var total = 1; f1(indexes); while (indexes[0] !== n-k) { total++; getNext(n, indexes); f1(indexes); } return {total}; } function getNext(n, vec) { const k = vec.length; vec[k-1]++; for (var i=0; i<k; i++) { var currentIndex = k-i-1; if (vec[currentIndex] === n - i) { var nextIndex = k-i-2; vec[nextIndex]++; vec[currentIndex] = vec[nextIndex] + 1; } } for (var i=1; i<k; i++) { if (vec[i] === n - (k-i - 1)) { vec[i] = vec[i-1] + 1; } } return vec; } let start = new Date(); let result = getAllCombinations(10, 3, indexes => console.log(indexes)); let runTime = new Date() - start; console.log({ result, runTime });

我可以给出这个问题的递归Python解决方案吗?

def choose_iter(elements, length):
    for i in xrange(len(elements)):
        if length == 1:
            yield (elements[i],)
        else:
            for next in choose_iter(elements[i+1:], length-1):
                yield (elements[i],) + next
def choose(l, k):
    return list(choose_iter(l, k))

使用示例:

>>> len(list(choose_iter("abcdefgh",3)))
56

我喜欢它的简洁。